Euan O'Reilly once lived the dream playing alongside his St Johnstone heroes in a debut preseason win over Sunderland.
Exactly six years on from that day, he gave Steven MacLean and Liam Craig a jolting reminder of the talent he possessed as one of Perth’s great young hopes.
O’Reilly sent a 49th minute winner past his former youth team colleague, Ross Sinclair, to sentence Saints to another ghastly group stage start.
The Auchterarder lad, a boyhood St Johnstone fan, was once regarded as the best teenage talent at the club.
Tommy Wright’s decision to play the winger against Sunderland, a 3-0 victory in which current manager MacLean scored the opener, was a pointer to an exciting future.
Yet four months later, O’Reilly feared for his career at 17 as groin and pelvic injuries completely punctured his progress.
Veteran players were a source of support as hopes of fulfilling all that promise for his club began to disintegrate.
The 23-year-old said: “There are quite a lot of people still at St Johnstone from my time.
“Liam Craig was probably a big influence on me. I had quite a few injuries so senior players like him, Steven MacLean, Brian Easton, Steven Anderson were really good.
“They could see a young player feeling down. They are good at keeping your head straight and keeping you positive.
“After coming on against Sunderland, I thought I might have a chance of the bench a couple of times that season. I made a few squads.
“But by November, I felt done. I was getting cortisone injections in my pelvis, I got an operation.
“I didn’t play for two years. The club looked after me really well but they couldn’t have given out a contract. You can’t blame them.”
After a year with Airdrie, O’Reilly fell out the full-time scene to commence a business management degree at university. He still entertains hopes of climbing the ladder from League Two.
He said: “I’m 23, still young enough. I have ambitions to go League One, Championship, hopefully Premiership at some point as well.
“My head just went mental when I scored, I was buzzing. All my family were here, as well as a few friends who are Saints fans and were sitting in our stand, to be fair to them.
"It’s bitter-sweet for them. For me, it was extra special that it was the winning goal.
“I was a big Saints fan, growing up I went lots. I remember getting my picture taken with Derek McInnes after training one day.”
MacLean turned to his young crop to try and dig Saints out of a hole at Ochilview.
Forwards Taylor Steven and Jackson Mylchreest were second half subs but the top flight team couldn’t beat a resolute Stenny defence and debut keeper Darren Jamieson.
Andrew Considine has been impressed by MacLean’s kids in pre-season.
The veteran defender stressed it’s the established, more experienced men who need to improve quickly before Saints suffer an early exit for the second year running.
Considine, 36, said: “From what I’ve seen there are four or five young lads who can make the step up.
“That’s encouraging and, if there’s new faces coming in, brilliant. But the group already here need to do so much better. We looked sluggish from the start. That was really disappointing.”
Saints lost to fourth-tier Annan on penalties 12 months ago, followed up with defeat to Queen Of The South and failure to qualify from the section.
MacLean should have much-needed new signings on board for Alloa away on Saturday.
Considine said: “We need to make sure it’s one we look back on as a minor speed bump.
“Because it’s the first game of the group, we’ve got the time to turn it around. We have to win all three games, it’s as simple as that.
“Each and every one of us will have a long look in the mirror over and be ready to go. We’ll dust ourselves down and have a hard week.
“I’m absolutely ready for another season. I wouldn’t turn up unless I thought I was. That was my first 90 minutes so it feels good to get that in the bank.”
